Eyes in the Sky
by SvC1610512
Summary: They knew there were people watching them on the ground...but they never thought they'd be watched from the sky.
1. Chapter 1

**This just popped into my head and I had to write it. So please review and let me know what you think! Any constructive criticism is appreciated! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, Kathy Reichs does.**

Prologue:

My eyes stared at the man in front of me, but I couldn't concentrate on him; all I could think about were the nasty-looking instruments on the cart next to him. Even thinking about what he was planning to do with them made me sick. They had talked about it before, thinking none of us could hear them. We wouldn't have been able to, not without our flares.

That was before we tried to escape. Mostly, it was a success. For Ben, Hi, Shelton, and Coop, that is. Not me.

I hadn't wanted to do it, but it wasn't going as planned. There had been too many of them closing in on us.

It was either me or all of us. No-brainer. I couldn't let them get caught again, especially since I was the one who got them into this mess at the first place.

I won't ever forget the looks on their faces and the thoughts in their heads as I stepped forward, towards the men with guns who weren't afraid to use them if necessary. Hurt, anger, fear, confusion. And, maybe, a little pride, though that could have just been my imagination.

_Go,_ I had yelled. _Go._

I almost added _I'll see you soon, I promise! _to the end. But the Virals weren't dumb, and neither was I. We all knew we'd never see each other again.

The scientist picked up a mask from the cart and tried to shove it over my face, startling me back to the present. I twisted my head away, but considering I was tied down, it was impossible to actually move away, making it easy for him to grab my head.

He managed to shove it over my mouth and nose. I held my breath as long as I could, but eventually I couldn't anymore and took a breath.

Everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm not sure if I said this in the prologue, so I'm going to say it here. These are going to be shorter chapters than what I usually write; about five hundred words each. I hope this lets me update more often. Also, not sure how long this story will be. Anyway, here's chapter one!**

Chapter 1:

I was being chased by gun-toting Viral monkeys. At least, in my dream I was, but with my luck it really could happen.

They all seemed to move as one without thinking, so I could only assume they were like my pack, only much bigger. Hundreds of golden eyes stared out at me.

I knew I was dreaming because I was lost. I could navigate Loggerhead with my eyes closed, yet I couldn't find the docks right now. It seemed every time the beach came into view there was suddenly a reason to run back to the center of the island. The other Virals were here somewhere too, but in that way that nightmares have I couldn't find any of them. It was easy to sense their fear growing at about the same rate as mine.

Suddenly, there was a voice calling my name.

_Thank you, _I thought. _Get me out of here._

"Tory! Get out of bed now!" Kit, my father. Little did he know that he just woke me up from one of my worst nightmares ever, even worse than some I had after my mom died.

"Coming!"

Five minutes later, I was sitting out the table stuffing my face with bacon before I left to catch the ferry to school, not that I wanted to go. If I didn't have the rest of the Virals with me, I wouldn't survive that school.

Kit said goodbye, then left for work. He'd catch the ferry from Morris to Loggerhead, and we'd take the one from Morris to Charleston in twenty minutes.

I noticed Shelton leave his house, so I grabbed my bag and headed down to the dock, running to catch up. "Hey, Shelton!"

"Hi, Tory. What's up?"

"Nothing really. Oh, I had this really weird dream last night." I said, just to make conversation.

"Really? Me too. What was yours about?" He asked.

"Well, I was on Loggerhead, and all the monkeys were chasing me except they all had guns and were Virals... Shelton, are you okay?" He had turned white.

"And you were trying to find the docks but every time you got the beach you got turned around? And all of us were there too, but you couldn't find us?" He said.

"Wait, how did you- no," I gasped. "Did you..."

"Yeah, I think so." Shelton sounded like he was going to be sick. I knew the mind stuff was really hard for him, and that was just exchanging thoughts, not freaking sharing dreams.

"Do you think Ben and Hi had the dream too? What about Coop?"

"It would only make sense."

"Shit. How is this even possible?" I said. I like my dreams to stay in my head and my head alone, thank you very much.

"How is what possible?" A voice said from behind us. Ben.

"Did you have any dreams last night?" I blurted.

"Yeah, why?"

"What were they about?"

"Why should I tell you what I dreamed?"

"Ben, it's important, I promise. Please?" I begged.

"Fine." And then he told us about the dream we both had.

"Can you tell me why it's important now?"

Shelton and I exchanged glances, then he blurted, "Me and Tory had the same dream."

Before he could say anything, Hi appeared, saying "Guess what I dreamed about last night? I was on Loggerhead-"

"Getting chased by Viral monkeys with guns?" We chorused.

Hi looked at all of us, eyes narrowed. "How the _hell_ did you guess _that__?_"

I took a breath and said as quickly as possible: "We all had the same dream, Hi."

Sharing dreams.

Crap.

**Okay, that was a bit longer then I expected. But anyway, the sharing-dreams thing will relate to how they get caught, I just have to figure out all the details. Please review and tell me what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter is not from Tory's POV. Just a heads up, though you would figure it out yourself. It's not really from anybody's POV, actually. I'm not really sure _what _writing style this is, all I know is I wanted to try it. I've never written like this, I've only ever used third and first person, so please review and tell me what you think.**

When four teenagers solve a forty-year-old murder, find a pirate treasure, and take down a terrorist in a hurricane, they catch the attention of people. Important people. People with power.

When attention of said people is captured, the said teenagers are put under undetectable surveillance. They can not control or avoid such surveillance because they are not aware of it, hence the "undetectable".

Powerful people know when something about a person is off, and they knew it here. Yet, they had not yet discovered proof. Kids are resourceful, and these ones happened to be extra resourceful. Despite being able to watch everything they did, this surveillance had, until recently, not yet revealed anything that made them different than other teenagers. They had friends, they hung out on the beach, they messed around. Sure, they had done those few things, but they acted normally.

Recently had ended the night before.

"Watch everything" meant absolutely everything, including brain waves during slumber. The human brain is essentially a computer. It uses electrical pulses to send information, much like the technology that humanity relied so much on today.

The main difference between brains and technology is that brains are not connected. Should not be.

Brains should not, at any point during sleep, give off the exact same electrical pulses as another brain.

To put it simply, brains do not share dreams with other brains. Yet, these five had.

Highly classified technology developed in Area 51, technology that not even the president of the United States knew existed, had picked up on the same brain waves coming from these four teenagers and a dog from fifty thousand miles above the Earth's surface.

It was the proof that they needed. These teens were not normal. In fact, though they had not yet had the chance to capture and run tests on them, many of the lead biologists and neurologists believed they were not completely human.

Orders were given. People were arranged. Things were prepared. Spies were sent with only the most minimal amount of information to observe up close.

The people giving orders were very powerful. They could incinerate the globe in hours with a single push of a button.

But they believed in the best for their country and their world. Though the teenagers had not shown any aggressiveness or danger to other civilians, the prospect of them not being completely human was simply too dangerous to the world at such an early stage of technology.

The people made plans. Big plans.

Ones that one day would shock the world.

**You have _no idea _how hard that was to write. I tried to make it really intimidating. It seems intimidating to me, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best judge of my own writing. I hope it sheds a little light on the prologue and title.**

**Please review and tell me what you think; tell me if you think it was good and I should write a few more chapters like this or just stick to Tory's POV.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks to Virals6SharpShooter, oceansoul85, shovelgirlERB000 and that one guest who reviewed. It means so much to me and makes me write faster. If I ever become an actual published author, it'll be because you guys told me to keep writing my fanfictions.**

**Anyway, since this story has received so much good feedback, I've decided I would update faster and with a longer chapter than planned. Hope you like this chapter as much as the others.**

When Ben's dad pulled up to the Charleston docks, the four of us were sitting silently in various places around the boat, each in our own thoughts. We didn't dare utter a word about what we had discovered around anyone. Or what it meant.

Once _Hugo_ was tied up, we all hopped off. Hi, Shelton and I went one direction, while Ben went in the direction of his new school.

At some point I'd forgiven him, and things had gone back to a semi-normal state. We were down to only a few awkward moments a hour. Better than ever.

I was lost in mixed thoughts about Ben and sharing dreams when Hi broke the silence by asking, "Whose dream was it in the first place?"

Shelton glanced over at us, then shook his head. "I've thought about that. It could have been any of ours, really, but I think the most logical answer would be that it was Tory's. She's the one who controls the mind stuff."

"Oh, yay," I said. There are some dreams I have that I wouldn't protect with my life or anything, but I still had dreams about my mom every once in a while. Though they all knew what had happened, those were just really private.

"You think you're going to have fun? For one, I would _just absolutely love _to see what girls dream about."

Five seconds later, Hi was rubbing the back of his head, where I hit him. Hard.

After that, the day passed pretty uneventfully. Until we were walking home, that is.

We were taking a shortcut through a street with a lot of houses. Usually we would have stuck to roads with stores on them, but we were running late. The ferry left in just a few minutes and didn't come back for forty minutes.

The day suddenly became eventful when I heard a bark.

"Did someone get a dog or something? I don't remember there being one around here," I said, glancing around.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed movement to the left. Turning my head I saw … _Coop__?_

"Um, Tory," Hi said, "tell me that isn't Coop."

"It is." Crouching down, I called him over. "Coop, what are you doing here, boy?"

Scratching his head, I considered. There was no way he swam all the way over from Morris. Tom Blue wouldn't bring him over on the shuttle, either.

So how had he gotten here?

"How did he get here?" I asked, as if Shelton or Hi knew any better than I did.

Coop barked and nudged my hand with his snout.

"What, Coop? What do you want?" So many questions were reverberating through my head right now that it was hard to decide which ones to vocalize.

He barked again, several times.

"It looks like he's trying to tell you something," Shelton observed.

"Yeah, but what?"

"Maybe you should-" Hi glanced around, making sure we were alone, "-flare, and see what's in his mind.

I nodded, than reached for my flare.

SNAP.

Quickly, I searched for the cords the connected us. Coop's was easy to find, but I noticed Ben was also flaring. Remotely, I wondered why, but I shifted my perception to Coop's so I could see what was worrying him. He immediately began sending me images.

They made my heart literally stutter. Possibly skip a few beats. My legs collapsed out from under me, and I would have hit the ground if it weren't for Hi and Shelton.

"Tory! What did you see?!" Hi yelled in my face, hands on my shoulders holding me up.

"Oh, God," I whimpered. Wrapped my arms around him; buried my face in his neck. "Oh, God." I began crying, the hardest I had since the night my mom was killed.

"Tory! _What did you see__?__!"_ Hi had hesitantly wrapped his arms around me and was awkwardly patting my back. I noticed Shelton pulling his ear.

"It- it's-" I stammered. Stopped. Rethought. "I can't s-say it out loud, I just c-can't. It'll be best if you flare and see for yourself."

The two immediately began reaching for their flares. It took them only seconds. Coop whined, sensing his pack was full. I reached out for the cords that connected me to them.

I sent them the images that Coop had sent me.

Men in black, with guns, inside our houses, searching. Coming closer. Then a tube with a long pointy thing coming out at the end, then darkness.

The next image was of a street, with a single, lone person on it. Ben. Coop running up to him, warning him to run, but he hadn't gotten the message in time. The men appeared from nowhere and everywhere and quickly overtook him and injected him with the same thing Coop had been injected with. He hadn't even had time to flare.

Then darkness again. Coop didn't see what had happened to Ben after that.

The third image was of us, and it was overlaid with Coop's fear. It ended there because we knew what happened after that.

Coop didn't know much of anything except that he woke up at the exact same time we came around the corner, and that he had to warn us.

I was so terrified that I nearly lost my flare. Hi and I sank to the ground, tangled together. He was clutching me to him tightly now. Shelton slumped to the ground behind us and leaned against me. I reached over and grabbed his hand. Coop laid down and rested his head in my lap. We were all silent for about fifteen seconds, then exploded all at once.

"Do they know about us? Those men looked military; they have to know about us! How do they know about us?" Shelton.

"What do we do now? If they know about us, we'll have to run! And what about Ben?" Hi.

"It's over, guys. Our secret's out," was all I said.

"What do we do?" Hi and Shelton chorused.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do." I squashed the fear down and stood up. "We're going to find these bastards, take them down, find Ben, get as far away from them as we can, and then do what we need to."

I suddenly noticed an irregular shadow. Chimneys are square, not square-with-a-human-on-the-side.

A split second after I noticed the shadow, it moved, along with several others around us.

_No._

_**Run!**_ I shouted to the other Virals in my mind. They didn't hesitate.

And we tried. We did. But every direction we turned, there was another person in front of us until we were surrounded by a circle. Most had guns that I couldn't identify trained on our heads, but several had them trained lower to the ground, at Coop.

For thirty seconds, we stood in the middle of the circle turning every which way, hoping against hope that there would be an opening we could get through.

One man stepped forward a little further than the rest. Assuming he was the leader, I growled at him. He looked calm and collected on the outside, but I could smell his fear.

Before I could voice this, he said: "That's what you _think _you're going to do."

He drew something out of his pocket as he was saying this. Tossed it at us.

I didn't even have time to register what it was before my eyes closed and I hit the ground.

**If you guys review, I won't leave you on the edge of your seats for as long...**


	5. Chapter 5

**Twelve reviews. Wow.**

**See? I told you reviews make me write faster.**

**The beginning of this chapter is Tory's POV. Part way through it switches to something like chapter three. It'll answer some questions, but raise a bunch more. Hope you enjoy it.**

I concentrated on keeping my breathing even and not swallowing as often as my throat wanted me to. I had read somewhere that you don't swallow as much in your sleep, and since that's what I was pretending to be, that little piece of useless information became useful.

The first time I had woken up, the man who captured me, Hi, Shelton and Coop had immediately stuck a needle through the side of the cage into my arm. I wasn't even awake long enough to register anything but the fact that Hi, Shelton, and Ben were in other cages scattered around the back of a delivery truck, unconscious. Coop was nowhere to be seen.

The second time I woke up, it was in a box with holes. I had the sense of moving, but didn't feel anything underneath me and heard _very _loud engines so I assumed I was on a plane. First-class genetic mutant flying, baby. That time, unconsciousness had come in the form of a gas blown in through the holes.

The third time, I learned my lesson. No moving, don't open your eyes. It would have been great, had I not been strapped face-down to a metal table. I didn't dare try to flare because it would cause me to move, and if I did that they would simply inject or gas me again. Instead, I listened carefully. There were two people in the room arguing in hushed voices. One was female, the other male.

"We need to insert the trackers first! The second they wake up they will try to escape!"

"We can't do that until we do the blood typing tests! What if something goes wrong and one of the subjects dies because they didn't get a transplant in time because we didn't know their blood type? We would be tortured to death by The."

"Nothing will go wrong! We have inserted trackers hundreds of times and nothing has gone wrong!"

"That was into humans. The subjects aren't human, and their biology may be completely different then ours." The voice dropped a little. "If you don't understand that soon, The will make you disappear. Permanently."

The voices were behind me so I very, very carefully opened my right eye a fraction and looked to my left without moving my head.

Ben and Hi were in the same position I was, though they were still unconscious. Looking towards the right, I noticed Shelton, and further down, Coop.

"Alright! We'll do the blood typing tests first. Might as well do a full analysis at the same time."

They moved to Hi with a cart. Pulling on gloves, they began to prepare the needle to stick into his arm.

I couldn't watch. Squeezing my eyes shut tight in terror and regret, I turned my head the other way. Big mistake. They froze and inhaled sharply. My body went completely still, and I hoped they would just let it go. They didn't.

"Did Subject A just move?" The man hissed.

The woman's frown was almost audible. "Maybe..."

It was silent for a few seconds, then the man said: "Inject her again. Hell, inject them all. It'll just make it easier to take blood and insert the tracker."

The woman moved closer to me.

That was when I snapped. Struggled. Screamed, growled. Shouted at the woman. The door to the room blew open and several men with guns ran in, asking the scientists what they needed to do.

It was too late, of course. And my fault. As I had been struggling, I threw my head back, lifting my neck up, directly into the needle.

You know what happened next.

* * *

The most powerful person in the country, even more so than the president, stared at the scientist fidgeting in front of her, wondering if what he proposed was within the realm of possibility.

When it had been discovered that the teenagers' brains were connected and with a dog – wolfdog, she had been informed, she had immediately called a meeting that all the government's top scientists had been required to attend.

Of course, she herself hadn't attended. People nearly as powerful as she did not attend such things. They simply sat and gave orders from the comfort of their own homes under fake names. She was simply known as "The". One scientist, the one most likely to rebel, was selected to report to her what went on at the meeting.

That was the last thing they did. Ever.

In her mind, it was as obvious as the sky being blue. Eliminate the weakest link and keep the others in line with fear at the same time.

The scientists always told the truth when reporting to her, hoping against hope that she would let them go.

This truth – what the scientists claimed they may be able to do – was the biggest truth she had ever heard.

She had heard only the words _Connect all species on Earth, _and they were soon followed by the thoughts "Money" and "Power". As if she could have more of either.

She pulled a shotgun out of her pocket and shot the scientist in the middle of his sentence. And forehead.

So she had killed an innocent scientist.

So what?

She was going to order others to experiment on children?

So what.

There was no one to tell her not to.

**Reviews make me write faster...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Just a heads up, nearly all science in this will be based off of a high-school honors biology class, and minimal internet research. So if I get any of it wrong, I'm sorry.**

I heard voices. Actual voices, not the kind insane people hear.

"Tory … Tory, wake up."

I knew the voice. It was Shelton's. But I couldn't wake up like he was asking me to.

Hi decided that violence was apparently the way awaken me. He slapped me across the face. "Tory! _Wake the hell up now!" _

In his defense, it worked. In mine, he had no right to slap me.

All three of them were crouching next to me, and Coop was sitting down by my feet.

I scrambled to get away from them into a corner, hand over my mouth. It was a completely white room, with no windows, and one door that was obviously highly secured.

Ben pointed to one corner, and I turned around and puked out what felt like half of my organs. There were already four different splatters of half-digested food here. Gross.

Turning around, I didn't want to meet their eyes.

It was my fault we were here.

Ben tentatively took a step towards me. "Tory? Are you okay? That stuff they gave us was strong."

My eyes flicked up to his face, and he had a look of concern. For me. After I got them stuck in here. Despite my best attempts not to, I began crying.

Ben didn't hesitate this time. Stepping forward and wrapping his arms around me, he gently pulled my head against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," I sobbed. "I'm sorry. This is my fault."

"Tory, this is all of our faults. None of us were careful enough."

"Yeah, Tory," Shelton said. Surprisingly, he wasn't curled in a ball on the floor. He looker stronger than I felt. "You may have started this, but we've all made mistakes."

"Don't think about the past, Tory," Hi added to Shelton's statement.

"The question is what happens now."

* * *

The scientist, who considered herself the only sane one in the world, stared at the analysis of the subjects' blood in front of her.

What she was looking at was something that her high school teachers and all her college professors preached was impossible.

She remembered it very clearly. Some dumbass who should not have been majoring in biology had asked a dumb question. Her professor had shouted: "It is impossible for an individual to have DNA of a different species and genus, and yet be able to survive! Let alone not being born with it, and yet being affected by mutations!"

Well, there goes that theory.

What she was looking at was the mixed hemoglobin amino acid sequence of a wolf and a human. Actually, it looked like what she imagined a werewolf's would be.

But werewolves weren't supposed to be real. They were the thing of nightmares and movies. Purely imagination.

"Come over here," she said to the other scientist in the room. He was blood typing the different samples.

"Hang on," he said strangely. "I can't figure this out. It goes from one thing, to another, and back just as quickly."

Could she trust him? No, but she had to tell him anyway.

"Come here," she repeated. "I think I may know why."

The man sighed dramatically. He liked getting his way.

He took one glance at the human hemoglobin model next to the subjects' on the screen and said: "What the hell?" The two models were very, very different.

"That was exactly my question. So I compared the amino acid sequences. The first time it differs from that of a human, it matches that of the canine family. I kept narrowing down results and eventually came to a conclusion. It's a result of mixed DNA between a human and a wolf."

He looked at her, turned slowly back to the screen. A smile spread across his face. "Interesting," was all he said.

She was right; he wasn't trustworthy. But she couldn't have The kill her before she succeeded in her plans. Hell, he was probably already planning what different operations he would perform.

She had planned something the night of the meeting. Something insane.

Well, sometimes sanity was insane.

** I have a feeling that this is, for a lack of a better word, an "off" chapter. But there were some things that I just wanted to happen – the scientists figuring out they have wolf DNA, and Tory feeling responsible.**

**Also.**

**Bad scientist, good scientist****?**** What do you think she is****?**

**Review. It makes me write faster.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I am so so so sorry that I haven't updated in days but I didn't have much time to write. I know, excuses, excuses. I'm sorry. Also, I created a forum where you can discuss what you want to/think will happen in Exposure. I'd love to hear your opinions and get some ideas of my own out there. So _please_ head on over there, okay? Also, with this chapter I'm eligible to become a beta reader, so if you're looking for one check out my beta profile.**

**Again I'm _so sorry _this is _way _late. I just wanted you to know that I wasn't forgetting the Virals' parents. **

**Also, someone _may_ (may!) die this chapter... Just to warn and scare the crap out of you...**

Kit's POV:

I was done for the day, grabbing my jacket and about to head for Tom's last shuttle run to Morris, when the phone rang.

_It never fails._

Seriously, I considered not answering it. They'd leave a message and I could call them back tomorrow. I had to answer, though. Came with the job.

"Kit Howard."

"That saves me the trouble of asking," the voice on the other side said.

"Excuse me? Who is this?" I swear, if this was a joke... it had happened before, along with some very entertaining wrong numbers.

"This is Sergeant McGreer from the Charleston Police Department. I'm afraid I have some bad news about your daughter..."

Police. What the hell did Tory get into this time? Don't get me wrong, I love her, but nearly everyday I thought about then next dangerous adventure she would get herself into.

"What did my daughter get into this time?"

"Err... well... we're not really sure..."

That put a pang of fear in my heart. If he couldn't ask her, then...

"Is she okay?"

"We don't know … but we don't think so."

"Let me put it this way, Sergeant I-don't-give-a-shit-who-you-are. Is my daughter sitting in front of you or in the station or anything remotely similar?"

_ "_No."

"Well then, _where is she?_"

"Sir, it seems her and her friends have been kidnapped."

…

I was pacing the docks, waiting for Tom Blue to get here. No doubt, it would take him half the time as usual. After I had hung up on the Sergeant I had grabbed my cell and called him. Forget that service on Loggerhead is usually impossible.

He had already picked up Linus and Ruth on Morris. The Devers had been shopping in Charleston and were already at the station. I assume Myra was driving there.

_Kidnapped. _That word kept repeating in my head, over and over again.

_Kidnapped. My daughter was kidnapped. _

If you don't understand the fear and panic that sentence creates in a person, then you are not a parent.

We only met a year and half ago, but I've learned so much from her in that time it's unbelievable. The things she did terrified me, but it didn't mean I wasn't proud. Tory had more courage then anyone I have ever or will ever meet.

Hearing an engine, I stopped pacing and looked up. Tom hadn't even come to a complete stop when my feet touched the deck.

"Go," I said. He wasted no time at all.

… Three hours earlier:

"How long do think we've been here?" Hi asked.

Wherever here was.

We were all slumped against the wall furthest from the puke corner, which smelled so bad, it was starting to make me sick. I didn't even want to think about what it would smell like if I was flaring. I'd probably need to use it again. More than once.

We'd been careful not to say anything important, anything that could be used against us. There hadn't been much conversation at all. It was kind of hard to not notice a black camera with the stark white walls in here.

"I don't know, Hi," I mumbled, and glanced at him giving him the "Shut the hell up now" look. Surprisingly, he did.

A few minutes later, Shelton asked, "Did any of you wake up on the way here?" I glared, but he saw the answer in my eyes. Yes, I had woken up.

But, I swear, none of them could keep their mouths shut even in a situation like this.

Suddenly, the fluorescent light above us went out. Being the only light source in the room, it pitched us into complete darkness.

"What- what happened?" Shelton said. No matter what we went through, he was still afraid of the dark. "Did the power go out?"

"Place like this, they'd never have power outages." Ben interjected.

"They probably want us to sleep," Hi mumbled. "It's probably night already. And I want to sleep, too. Good night." I heard him roll over and the sound of snores immediately filled the room."

Suddenly, I was tired. Very tired. It had been a long day.

"How does he _do _that?" Shelton asked.

"Even if they want us to sleep, we're not just going to all sleep, right? They'd probably decide to do an impromptu dissection." Ben said. If I could actually see anything, I would have gaped at him. It was possibly the longest sentence I've ever heard him say.

Well, I guess this was something that would change all of us.

"I'll stay awake," I volunteered.

"Not all night, Tory. You need sleep too."

"Fine. I'll wake you up at some point."

I could feel Ben hesitate, but then accept that he couldn't change my mind.

Good. I needed to think.

Think about how the hell to get out of here.

…

Watching the monitor as intensely as a teenage girl would watch her favorite pop star perform, The laughed when the fat kid- Hiram, she had been informed, not that she actually cared- had suggested that they had turned out the lights to make them sleep.

It was _exactly _what they had done. They wanted to observe the electrical waves in their brains again, close-up this time.

The would get the report from the scientists later. She had other things to do.

Turning to the man next to her she began to drill him, asking him a series of questions about the identity he would assume in three hours for a short period of time. She had no doubt that he would succeed perfectly, though she placed more trust in machines then people. He had been a double agent for several governments once. At the same time.

She felt a burst of adrenaline about what was about to happen. Normally she would have just sent one of her operators to take care of it, but The was bored. She hadn't killed someone in … like, sixteen hours. She wanted to see some blood. Now.

Kill two problems with one bullet.

One last time, she asked the man, "Who are you?"

He smirked. "Head of the Charleston Police Department, name Sergeant McGreer."

…

Sergeant McGreer hadn't wanted to start without all the parents here. It made sense, but I was pacing, Tom was sitting with his head in his hands, and Lorelei was crying onto Nelson's shoulder.

No one was talking. We all had to deal our different ways, I guess.

I had called Whitney several times, but she hadn't picked up. It wasn't a surprise because she usually turned her phone off at work.

_Oh, God. All those times I made Tory do something she didn't want because Whitney wanted it..._

Already, thoughts like that had begun circling through my head. Every stupid fight we had over Whitney coming over for dinner. Every stupid fight we had over her friends. Every stupid fight we had over everything.

So much regret, all at once. Like a tidal wave. Even worse, tsunami.

Myra was the last to arrive. When she did, Sergeant McGreer followed her into the room, gun strapped to his belt. With him was another woman, who must have been a detective or something.

Now.

Shutting the door to the room was expected. Didn't faze me at all. However, using a remote to lock it from the _outside_ was definitely not normal.

That's when I realized that something was completely wrong here.

I don't think the others had noticed it. The woman had hidden her hand behind her back when she did it, and the other parents had all been fixated on Sergeant McGreer. I was the only one close enough to it to hear the click.

I seemed to be much more alert then they were. Runs in the family, I guess.

"Hello," he addressed the room, making eye contact with every single one of us. When it was my turn, his eyes narrowed.

He knew that I knew something was up.

But the guy was good. He carried on completely unfazed. "Now, I know you're distraught over your children, but-"

"Distraught?" I interrupted harshly. "You think we're distraught? You obviously don't have children."

That was really just an attempt to catch him off guard, but whoever this guy was, he was _good_.

"You're right; I don't have children. I can't imagine or understand what you're going through..."

Suddenly, the woman spoke. Giggled.

And pulled a gun out of nowhere and pointed it at me. "Oh, drop the facade! He _knows _already that something's wrong. Now it's just time to explain what."

Sergeant McGreer also pulled his gun out, but didn't aim it at a specific person, just in the general direction of all the other parents. Their eyes were wide, and they were staring at McGreer and the woman in confusion and fear. So was I, but I seemed to be catching on quicker.

"What- what are you doing?" Ruth stammered. "You're supposed to be helping us! You're the police department and you're pointing guns at us after our-" her voice choked up "-after our children were taken."

The woman giggled again. It was disconcerting, having a giggling woman pointing a gun at you.

"Oh, honey, all of you've got it all wrong! We don't belong to the police at all, that's an insult. _We're _the ones who took your children. Believe me, you're better off without them, especially with that huge secret they have..." She refocused on me, then tried to make eye contact with everyone in the room. "I'm the most powerful person in the country! You're going to do what I say."

"What secret? Why did you take them? Who are you and why are you the most powerful person in the country? And if we don't do what you say?" I challenged.

"Well, those first two, I can't answer, I'm afraid. The third? Just called me The. And I can show you the last one..."

"Wha-"

Click.

_Bang._

A searing hot pain shot through me, and then I didn't see or hear anything.

**There we go. Super long chapter, with what I hope is an awesome cliffhanger.**


End file.
